February 16, 2014 | Mohiuddin Ahmed

Our conscious experience constantly shifts—sometimes rooted in memories, at other times centered on our present thoughts, feelings, and awareness of our immediate surroundings. We also project into the future, envisioning what may happen, what we hope to do, or what we believe is possible or impossible. Occasionally, our minds create fantasies that merge past experiences, present realities, and imagined futures into a seamless whole. Yet amid these mental excursions, the only tangible reality we truly experience is the immediate present moment of our existence. It is the here and now that defines the reality of our conscious being.

The past is no longer; it exists only in our memories or in the evidence we observe in the present. Similarly, the future has not yet materialized and remains a projection—a potential rather than a reality. Thus, the present moment is the only reality we can actively engage with as we navigate from one moment of existence to the next.

As humans, our capacity to think symbolically and project into the future liberates us from the instinctual, biologically constrained thought processes seen in other creatures. Yet this same capacity also amplifies our awareness of the uncertainty of life and death, confronting us with the mystery of the unknown future.

For many, religious faith provides solace in the face of this existential uncertainty. The belief that God knows all and determines our fate offers a framework for coping with the unpredictability of life and the inevitability of death. Faith helps alleviate the existential anxiety that arises from living in a world filled with uncertainty, offering reassurance and meaning in the face of the unknown.

From a scientific perspective, particularly one grounded in astronomy, our existence is similarly steeped in uncertainty. Everything in the cosmos is in perpetual motion, creating an ever-changing reality. For instance, the Sun revolves around the Galactic Center of the Milky Way—a galaxy containing over 200 billion stars—at an astonishing speed of approximately 118 miles per second. This journey takes roughly 240 million years to complete.

To put this in perspective, humanity, as Homo sapiens, has existed for only 30,000 to 40,000 years—a mere blink in cosmic time. This means that no human being, nor even our species, has ever experienced the Sun completing a single revolution around the Galactic Center. Every second, the Earth, the Sun, and all of us are being carried into an unknown trajectory, highlighting the unpredictability and mystery of our existence.

In this way, both religious faith and science converge in their acknowledgment of the unknown. While they may approach the unknown from different perspectives—faith rooted in divine understanding, and science rooted in observable phenomena—both point to a shared truth: the vastness of the unknown is beyond human comprehension.

A Shared Symbolic Understanding

Whether through faith or science, the human experience is united by a sense of wonder and humility in the face of life’s uncertainties. Both disciplines, in their own symbolic ways, invite us to reflect on the mystery of existence and embrace the reality that the future, like the cosmos, is vast, unpredictable, and profoundly unknowable.

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Copyright Notice
This blog post is part of a series by Mohiuddin Ahmed under the title Existential Perspectives (existentialperspectives.wordpress.com, 2014). Unauthorized use or duplication of this material without express written permission from the author is prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used with full and clear credit to Mohiuddin Ahmed and appropriate direction to the original content at https://existentialperspectives.wordpress.com.